Somehow I was unaware until school started this week that the state I live in, Indiana, passed a law this year requiring the school to REPORT to the parents if a child requests to be called by a different name or gender pronoun than they registered under…and the parent has to give written permission for the school to use said name or gender pronouns. This has put a ridiculous burden on the teachers, of course. Today I got an email notifying me that my son, Ben, would like to be called Ben and not Benjamin. I signed a form. Thousands of other parents will do so as well.
This is absolutely fucking ridiculous in so many ways. The pursuit of eliminating trans people at all costs has gotten so out of hand. This is some Taliban shit.
Please…for fuck’s sake call my kids whatever they want to be called, have drag queens read to them…teach them that slavery was bad and gay people exist. Let the teachers teach. Help my kids to be smart and kind and call it a day…I trust our public school system. This is so infuriating.
To the people passing these laws, I hope your children and grandchildren are ashamed of you and put you in a shitty nursing home and never visit you…and then you die (of old age) and the next generation is better. This is disgusting.
Indeed. My sister in law has three kids they all go by shortened versions of their full names. Had to sign three forms…to really think that it is technically ILLEGAL for them to call him Ben without a form from me is so absurd.
This has to be a first amendment violation. How can it be illegal to have a nickname?
While I’m completely with OP on this topic, I’m curious to know how it’s a First Amendment issue when other people don’t use your preferred name (or pronoun).
For good or for bad, they get the same First Amendment rights and protections on their speech.
Clearly kids don’t have first amendment rights…although maybe they should. Perhaps a non-binary minor needs to sue their parents to have that discussion.
That’s so… inbred to think this way.